Health deficit accumulation in relation to cardiovascular disease burden

While individuals with health problems impacting the heart and blood vessels (i.e., cardiovascular disease) can now live longer, they are not always living in good health. Measuring frailty is a way to determine an individual's health as they grow older. People with more health problems are considered frailer compared to those living with fewer issues. Frailty in cardiovascular disease is a major problem. Research studies show that people with cardiovascular disease have high frailty levels and is related to poor quality of life, more hospital visits, and earlier risk of dying compared to individuals with lower frailty levels. Some standard drug-based treatments for cardiovascular disease are also not effective in people with high degrees of frailty. These treatments might even increase the risk or poor health outcomes in people who are very frail. While frailty is common in cardiovascular disease, there is little research which determines if frailty is important in developing cardiovascular disease more quickly. Furthermore, it is not known if frailty develops rapidly after people are diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease. For our research project, we will look at many large studies of people from Canada and other countries which allow us to track changes in frailty and cardiovascular disease development. We will identify groups of individuals who develop health problems at different rates before and after cardiovascular disease develops. We will also study the impact of different combinations of health problems which increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. We are also interested in how social vulnerability affects frailty and cardiovascular disease. Lastly we will identify which health problems are important after a person has cardiovascular disease. We hope to identify people with a greater risk for developing cardiovascular disease to tailor or create new prevention strategies.